The present disclosure relates to the Internet of Things (IoT), and, in particular, to methods, systems, and computer program products for communicating information generated by things in the IoT in a secure fashion.
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of physical and virtual things having embedded computer systems associated therewith that allow the things to exchange data with other entities, such as a user, operator, manufacturer, technician, analyst, etc. based on the International Telecommunication Union's Global Standards Initiative. The IoT may allow, for example, things to be sensed, monitored, and/or controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, which may create more opportunities for direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, and may result in improved efficiency, accuracy, and economic benefit. Each thing may be uniquely identifiable through its associated embedded computing system and is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure. Some experts estimate that the IoT will consist of almost 50 billion things by 2020. The things in the IoT can refer to a wide variety of device or object types such as, but not limited to, industrial electronic devices, environmental sensors, security devices, power plant control/monitoring systems, airplane engine and flight control monitoring systems, railway control and monitoring systems, manufacturing control systems, and the like. The data collected from such things may in some instances be highly confidential. Rather than transmit the data from these things to a third party entity for analysis across the Internet, such as a manufacturer or third party data analyst, an enterprise may make manual copies of the electronic drives containing the data and provide them to the destination party.